October No-Spend Month Day 6: 1-Hour Freezer Cooking Meals!

Hello again, savvy savers! For today’s October No-Spend Daily Challenge, as part of the #31DayLWSZ Challenge, I want to discuss my experience with today’s prompt, freezer cooking meals.

So, to begin. I’ve been making freezer cooking meals for several years.

Here’s how it started – After a few year of being married I began to become both a work-from-home legal position, as well as a full-time caretaker for my grandmother. This new season of life turned my ordinary world, my ordinary life into a busy chaotic whirlwind of facsimiles, schedule medicine sessions, cleaning, care-taking, all while trying to cook dinner for my family. Often times, when I had an especially busy exhausting day I would turn to fast food, or home cooked fast food for dinner like boxed Mac n Cheese, hot dogs, or dare I say cold cereal.

In my heart, I knew this wasn’t the food I wanted myself or my family to eat, but because of being mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted I took the proverbial easy way out. It was during this time I heard about easy freezer meals, meal plans where in under a few hours I could cook, prep, and freezer crock-pot ready meals in under an hour, which would yield a months meals. I decided to try it out.

My first experience: I cooked for a whole morning in my kitchen, finished 30 meals, and was no worse the wear for having done so. I felt so wonderful and the rest of that month I didn’t dread the dinner hour. The biggest change? My husband was so happy to have real cooking again, he began requesting freezer-ready meals be placed onto our month menu planning sessions; this in turn spurned my love of freezer cooking. So, you may be thinking, are freezer-ready meals great for my family?

Make ahead freezer meals for a month are great for people:

Who have busy lives and don’t always have time to cook a nice meal.
People who eat at fast food a lot but want better healthy meals quick.
Brand new mothers who just had a baby and need to rest or enjoy every precious minute of a new one.
Folks who are sick, elderly or injured and cannot cook.
People on a limited budget.

What can be frozen and what cannot:

There are a few items that don’t freeze well: Lettuce, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and raw potatoes .
Egg-based products: Hard boiled eggs & Egg based sauces like mayonnaise will separate and curdle.

What containers are good to use for easy freezer meals:

Gallon or quart sized plastic or re-usable freezer safe bags.
Aluminum pans, with crimp lids.
Lidded plastic containers.

Here is a list of my favorite freezer meals:

So, everyone I cannot tell you all how highly I recommend freezer cooking meals! So, if anyone has other great tips for freezer cooking, I’d love to hear about it.

Here’s to saving,

Nicole

Welcome, savvy savers! My name is Nicole, and I'm the LadyPrefers2Save. We believe in making the minimalist mindset manageable, through budgeting, upcycling, & healthy menu planning. I thank you for stopping by and giving us the opportunity to help you prefer to save, too!